The development of the institutional capacity to create and evaluate economic policies remains a critical need—and constraint—in most transition economies if they are to complete the successful passage to fully functioning market economies. To take an active role in the transition process,...

When the Soviet Union broke up, ten of the fifteen successor states were hit by hyperinflation. Hyperinflation is closely connected with the persistence of the common currency area in the CIS till 1993. Arguably, the preservation of the ruble zone was the worst single mistake in the...